Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Are
you or somebody you know lazy? Both in life and in the kitchen? Do they happen
to be vegan too? Well, I can say that as a student, though I love to cook, I’m
pretty lazy with my diet 50% of the time.

For me, one of the drawbacks to cooking all of my own
meals is that it can take up a lot of my precious time that could be spent watching
YouTube videos, playing Plants vs. Zombies (a recent addiction), or studying
(ugh).

So with that, my 3 best friends are my rice cooker, my
crockpot, and my oven. With my rice cooker, I usually throw in 1 cup of brown
rice with about ½ a cup of some kind of veggie. Now I usually get pretty lazy
here again and I will use frozen veggies(SO much easier than cleaning and
chopping up fresh veggies), and 2 cups of water.I can do this, go study for about an hour
(who am I kidding, I’ll definitely be catching up on some of my favorite
YouTubers), come back and have the perfect little meal. Add some garlic, salt,
and pepper, and YUM!

My next best friend, best in line, is the good ol’ handy
dandy crockpot. If I know that I’ll be busy the next day, I’ll usually prepare
a soup at night and let it cook until the next morning, and BAM, I have soup
for days. (Well, usually just that day because my friend is pretty tiny, but
don’t tell her that, she’s a great friend to have). Again, I’m lazy here, so I
stick to the same soup recipe every time. Why change a good thing? (My crockpot
gets me).

Every vegan has an arsenal of dry beans, so that usually makes up 90%
of my soup. A simple recipe here, 2 cups total of any beans you like. My
favorites are red kidney beans, split peas, black beans, and great northern
white beans. Then I’ll add whatever veggies I have in the fridge, like carrots
and celery. Add in 2 Tbspns of veggie stock paste, a good amount of apple cider
vinegar, water to fill up the rest of the crockpot, and lastly, my favorite spices
which I talk about in my other blog post, “Potatoes & Spices.” Put the
crockpot on high if you want it ready the next morning, and wow will you wake
up to a delicious smell.

Lastly, but surely not least, is my oven. I love making
fries, stir frys, and everything in between, and I just love the “oh so barely
burnt” flavor that a pan cooking on top of a stove can give my veggies and
potatoes, but that means I have to stand there, cook, and actually watch my
food. But with my oven, I can put my veggies in a dish with some oil and
spices, throw it in the oven at 450° for 20-30 minutes,
and I just gave myself 20-30 minutes of Plants vs. Zombies time.

In the end though, it’s not important the food that you
make, but how much time you can save yourself for other things you need, or
want to do. (Plants vs. Zombies anyone? I know I’m not alone in this addiction).
So get to cooking! Or not! And get lazy with your diet!

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Christmas
is only 24 days away, the elves are stocking up on toys, and Santa is sure to
be preparing with some vegan cookies and almond milk. It’s a very magical time
of the year, and as I always say to people who don’t enjoy this time of the
year, ‘BUT THE WHOLE WORLD IS HAPPY!’ How can you not love the holiday season
when the whole world is in the same joyful mindset?

I
think Christmas has to be one of my favorite holidays, and around the holidays
there’s bound to be gift giving all around. And as a vegan, I think people
consider it different because they’re not sure what to get a vegan (even though
there are tons of things out there that are vegan). So what DO you get a vegan
for Christmas? Snacks, clothes, almond
milk? (I’d love to get some almond milk as a gift, it’s DELICIOUS!)
So because vegans make it so hard (according to nonvegans) for carnivores to
shop for us, I’ve put together a list of some gifts that are sure to get a
vegan smile from a vegan human!

·Tea

·Dark chocolate

·Books

·Soy candle

·Animal tshirt

·Bath salt/body scrub

·Animal adoption sponsorship

Though
a small list, these are things that I love, and thus they are vegan approved.
Now with tea, my favorite is a good chamomile and rose hips, and you can never
go wrong with a good fruit tea. Dark chocolate is one of my favorite treats,
and for the vegan sweet tooth lover, it’s a perfect stocking stuffer. (Just be
sure to double check the ingredients for milk, not all dark chocolate is vegan)
If the vegan in your life loves to cook, why not get them a vegan cookbook! I
have one from the restaurant Native Foods, and it has some pretty amazing,
delicious recipes in there.

Soy candles are SOY amazing! And they last much
longer than non soy candles. What vegan doesn’t love a good cat tshirt? You can’t
go wrong with that. For the beauty vegan, try some bath salts or body scrubs. A
lot of them are vegan, and some are not, so again, be sure to read the
ingredients! This last gift idea is my favorite one, and will probably make
that vegan in your life the happiest person in the world. As vegans, a lot of
us feel like nonvegans don’t understand our stance on meat eating and animal
cruelty, but by sponsoring an animal, that is a great way to show your
compassion and understanding for what vegans stand for.

So
get shopping, and if none of these gifts work for you, buy them almond milk,
vegans love almond milk am I right?